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September 26, 2013

LPL Lands Retirement Plan Deal With New York Life

This comes on the heels of the broker-dealer's news of a similar program with Vanguard in August

LPL celebrating its 2010 IPO.

LPL Financial (LPLA) said early Thursday that New York Life Retirement Plan Services will allow some investors to get one-on-one financial advice from LPL reps using the broker-dealer’s Worksite Financial Solutions platform early next year.

“The addition of New York Life to the growing roster of retirement plan recordkeepers who can administratively support our Worksite Financial Solutions platform is a significant win for LPL Financial, our advisors and retirement plan participants,” said Bill Chetney, executive vice president of LPL Financial Retirement Partners, in a press release.

In August, LPL struck a similar deal with industry giant Vanguard and Ascensus. The partnerships should give LPL advisors the chance to provide services to more than 1,000 plans with more than $2.1 billion in retirement assets.

“We are pleased our robust and flexible record-keeping platform enables us to facilitate solutions such as Worksite Financial between our plan sponsors and LPL advisors,” said Patrick Murphy, managing director of distribution for New York Life Retirement Plans Services, in a statement. “The need for comprehensive financial advice, beyond the 401(k), is vitally important to drive better outcomes for our participants.”

LPL advisors, of course, are glad to hear about the latest arrangement.

“We are very excited that New York Life can support Worksite Financial Solutions,” said rep Barbara Delaney, principal of StoneStreet Equity in New York and a retirement plan focused financial advisor registered with LPL who works with some $2.5 billion in client assets, in a statement. “This will enable us to offer the Worksite Financial Solutions platform to my New York Life plan sponsors, including a number of our existing $100-million-plus plans.

“The interest level is higher than we anticipated, and we expect the response will be similar for our other plan clients, since sponsors love the concept,” Delaney added.

New York Life Retirement Plan Services, part of New York Life Insurance, administers some $47.2 billion in retirement plans.

LPL supports roughly 13,400 financial advisors and 700 financial institutions, as well as more than 4,600 advisors licensed with insurance companies. It added tools from Morningstar Associates, Financial Finesse and Wealth Management Systems to its Worksite Financial platform in June, after launching it in March.